Genus Botrychium (ferns)

Common fern flora
Common fern flora, Botanical Gardens (Dudley B. Christie)

Genus: Botrychium
By: Dudley Benjamin Christie

Family-Ophioglossaceae

DESCRIPTION
"Fleshy terrestial plants with erect rootstocks bearing clustered fleshy, sometimes tuberous-thickened roots. Leaves 1 to 3, erect, consisting of short cylindric common stalk bearing at its summit a 1-3 pinnately compound or < decompound free-veined foliage blade and a sporophyl with long stalk and a terminal fertile spike 1-4 pinnate panicles above the sterile blade, with numerous distinct globular sporangia in 2 rows, sessile or nearly so: spores copious, usually sulphur-yellow (Small, 1938)." Members of the genus posses grape like clusters of sporangia. The sporangia are situated on unbranched shoots (spikes) which originate from the base of the stalk. "The leaves are developed underground and unfold and expand when they reach the surface (Dunbar, 1989)." Their veins are net like or reticulate and a periderm is found in Botrychium and no other genus.

SPECIES of BOTRYCHIUM
Botrychium biternatum-Southern grapefern, Sparse-lobed grapefern
Botrychium dissectum-Common grapefern, Dissected grapefern, Lace-frond grapefern
Botrychium jenmanii-Alabama grapefern
Botrychium lanceolatum-Lance-leaf grapefern
Botrychium lunarioides-Winter grapefern, Moonwort, Lunary, Unshoe-the- Horse
Botrychium matricariaefolium-Daisy leaf grapefern, Camomile grapefern
Botrychium multidum-Northery grapefern
Botrychium obliquum-Oblique grapefern
Botrychium simplex-Least moonwort, Dwarf grapefern, Small grapefern
Botrychium virginianum-Rattlesnake fern, Grapefern, Indicator, Sang-sign

The rattlesnake fern is the best known species of the Botrychium group, easily recognized by its large lacy foliage blades. Its geographical range is very extensive including North America (North of Central America), Europe, and Asia. The species altitude tolerance ranges from elevations of five thousand feet to sea level. To the early observers, the plants sporangial clusters appeared as the rattle of a rattlesnake.

The Southern grapefern appears to be very similar to the Alabama grapefern. Its geographic extensions are into Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina, and its maximum altitude is found several hundred feet up in Alabama and South Carolina. It has one unique feature in that its common stalk is very short or absent. The taxonomic name of the Southern grapefern "means twice divdied in three's and refers to the way the blade is dissected, though fronds are variable and can be divided once in three's twice in three's, or sometimes a combination of the two (Dunbar, 1989)." Botrychiums are found most frequently at higher latitudes and altitudes. The habitats that best suit the Botrychiums are open pastures, grassy slopes, young second growth woods, and old fields. Botrychiums typically "produce one shoot a year, however the primordia for several years fronds can be found in the terminal buds of a rhizome (Green, 1990)." The gametophyte of the genus Botrychium is subterranean and requires a mycorrhical association. Many members are considered quite beautiful and would be a wonderful addition to any home landscaping project.

References
Bruce, J.G. & L.H. Snyder. 1986. Field Guide to the Ferns and Other Pteridophytes of Georgia. The University of Georgia Press. Athens, Ga. (ISBN-0-8203-0847-1). 270 pages
Campbell, N.A. 1996. Biology. Benjamin Cummings Publishing Company. University of California, Riverside. 1206 pages.
Dunbar, L. 1989. Ferns of the Coastal Plain. The University of South Carolina Press. Columbia, South Carolina. (ISBN-0-87249-594-9). 165 pages.
Green, P.S. & K.U. Kramer. 1990. The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants. Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, Germany. (ISBN-3-540-51794-4). 404 pages.
Small, J.K. 1938. Ferns of the Southeastern States. The Science Press. Lancaster, Pa. 597, pages.